IT seems Microsoft is about to appoint its cloud-computing head Satya Nadella as its next chief executive.

The world's largest software company, which has been looking for a heavy-hitter for five months now, is strongly rumoured to be plumping for the Indian who first joined Microsoft in Hyderabad, where the company has its largest non-US research centre.

The appointment of the 22-year Microsoft veteran would make him the most powerful Indian-born tech executive in the world.

Born in 1967, Nadella's tech career started at internet software pioneer Sun Microsystems. He joined Microsoft in 1992 and quickly climbed the ladder with leading roles in the Office and Bing search-engine teams. He was promoted to run the company's server and tools unit in 2011.

That unit now forms the backbone of Microsoft's cloud-computing platform, which Nadella runs under his official title of executive vice president, cloud and enterprise.

Here's hoping an Irish man or woman might one day follow in his footsteps.